Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of reports that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is involved in the trafficking of Captagon across the Middle East.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The production and smuggling of captagon is a multi-billion dollar trade, essentially emanating from Assad-regime control within Syria. This trade is destabilising the region and provides illicit revenue to multiple malign actors, notably the Assad regime and its co-conspirators, including Hizballah and other Iranian-backed militias. The UK has drawn international attention to this (through an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) and increased our cooperation with regional states to combat this. We have made clear our concerns about the malign activity of Hizballah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, both organisations we have sanctioned in their entirety.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of reports of increased attempts by Syrian and Iranian-linked groups to traffic Captagon into Europe.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK recognises that the production and smuggling of captagon is a lucrative trade, which provides illicit revenue streams to multiple actors, notably the malign Syrian Asad regime and its co-conspirators, principally Hezbollah and other Iranian militias.
The UK is stepping up its efforts to work with likeminded partners and regional states to combat this and is drawing international attention to the issue (for example in an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) to ensure accountability.
HMG regularly assess the threat posed to the UK by the trafficking of illicit drugs, and currently assess that there is little/no direct UK facing threat. To date, no instances of Captagon being seized at a UK border have been recorded.
In December 2021, the Government launched its ten-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives. As part of this, £300 million has been allocated to fund activity to break drug supply chains from end-to-end. This includes restricting upstream flow, securing the UK border, and ensuring we remain agile in the face of changing threats.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the involvement of Hezbollah in the captagon trade.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Syrian regime's reliance on illicit profits gained from captagon increases regional instability and strengthens Russian and Iranian influence in the region. In particular, Hezbollah benefits from captagon, using their knowledge of narcotic trading routes, political connections, and security infrastructure to expand the production and trafficking of this narcotic. Known Hezbollah drug lords and leaders have been implicated in seizures and work closely with Syria's military 'fourth division' to facilitate smuggling efforts. Hezbollah is proscribed by the UK, and we maintain an asset freeze against the organisation and are working to ensure they cannot continue to profit from this trade.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has a strategy for countering the captagon trade in the Middle East.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The production and smuggling of captagon is a multi-billion dollar trade, essentially emanating from Asad-regime control within Syria. The captagon trade is a growing concern, which is having a destabilising effect in the region. Captagon provides illicit revenue streams to multiple malign actors, notably the Syrian Asad regime and its co-conspirators, principally Hezbollah and other Iranian militias. The UK is stepping up its efforts to work with likeminded partners to combat this, including by drawing international attention to the issue (for example in an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) and increasing our cooperation with regional States.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the captagon trade in the Levant region.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The production and smuggling of captagon is a multi-billion dollar trade, essentially emanating from Asad-regime control within Syria. The captagon trade is a growing concern, which is having a destabilising effect in the region. Captagon provides illicit revenue streams to multiple malign actors, notably the Syrian Asad regime and its co-conspirators, principally Hezbollah and other Iranian militias. The UK is stepping up its efforts to work with likeminded partners to combat this, including by drawing international attention to the issue (for example in an intervention at the UN Security Council on 25 January) and increasing our cooperation with regional States.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have a mechanism to identify specific inbound goods for inspection prior to those goods reaching the UK.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
A risk-based, intelligence-led approach is taken at the Border to tackle the highest and most significant risks before arrival. This approach includes risk-based pre- and post-clearance checks, regular monitoring of supply chains to identify any potentially illicit trade in cooperation with international partners and providing education to traders on their responsibilities.
Entry summary declarations (also known as an ENS) submitted by carriers, are used to identify risks on goods before they arrive. They are part of the international standard for safety and security set up by the World Customs Organisation in their SAFE Framework.
Where the Goods Vehicle Movement System (GVMS) is used for inbound goods with pre-lodged customs declarations, goods requiring checks are identified before they disembark. In other circumstances where customs declarations have been pre-lodged goods may be identified for checks provisionally.
Imports of all goods which are regulated for sanitary or phytosanitary purposes must be pre-notified via the Imports of Animals, Products, Food and Feed System or an equivalent system for plants and plant products. This information is used to target risk-based checks of these imports, to safeguard UK biosecurity.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department will take steps to support Somaliland with tackling animal (a) poaching and (b) trafficking in that region.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is committed to protecting endangered animals and plants from poaching and illegal trade to benefit wildlife, local communities and the economy, and protect global security. We are investing over £46 million globally between 2014 and 2022 to counter illegal trade by reducing demand, strengthening enforcement, ensuring effective legal frameworks and developing sustainable livelihoods. Through the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) Challenge Fund the UK has committed over £900,000 to the Legal Intelligence for Cheetah Illicit Trade (LICIT) Fund to enhance national and regional capacity in the Horn of Africa, including in Somaliland, to fight wildlife crime by strengthening national and regional level legal capacity and increasing community capacity and ownership of wildlife resources.
Asked by: Damian Green (Conservative - Ashford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what dedicated funds have been made available to (a) HM Revenue & Customs, (b) Border Force and (c) Trading Standards to prevent the sale of illegal tobacco in each financial year since 2018-19.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government has dedicated significant resource to tackling illicit tobacco and has set out its approach to doing so in successive strategies dating back to 2000. These strategies have been highly effective in reducing the illicit trade for cigarettes from 22% in 2000-01 to 9% in 2020-21, and for hand-rolling tobacco from 61% to 34% in the same period.
Funding for tackling illegal tobacco is typically drawn from wider budgets and activities aimed at tackling illicit trade. However, at Budget 2020 the Government announced further resources to combat illicit tobacco, dedicating £1million over two years to ‘Operation CeCe’, a joint initiative between HMRC and National Trading Standards to tackle illicit trade at a local level.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential risk of weapons sent to the Ukrainian armed forces coming into the possession of organised crime gangs.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
This Government is committed to tackling the threat posed by trafficking and the misuse of illicit small arms and light weapons which play a key role in facilitating Organised Crime Group (OCG) activity.
According to NAC Threat assessments it remains highly unlikely that the conflict in Ukraine is impacting on the Serious and organised crime small arms and light weapons threat to the UK. Despite the number of small arms and light weapons available in conflict zones, very few types available pre-conflict or donated by western governments are used by criminals in the UK.
At the end of the conflict, it is a realistic possibility that some small arms and light weapons will be traded on the European criminal marketplace. The threat is being monitored closely by agencies, in close cooperation with European Partners such as Europol. We are adopting a multi-agency approach to further develop an understanding of the illicit firearms trade and lessons learnt from previous events.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to tackle illicit (1) tobacco, and (2) vape, sales to underage young people.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling illicit tobacco: From leaf to light The HMRC and Border Force strategy to tackle tobacco smuggling was published in May 2015. This strategy implements an approach to address illicit tobacco across the Government through agencies such as the Border Force, HM Revenue and Customs, local Trading Standards and working with other enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom and overseas to disrupt, deter and punish those involved. A copy of the strategy is attached.
In 2019, HM Revenue and Customs introduced the UK system for the tracking and tracing of legitimate cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco manufactured in or imported into the UK and through the supply chain to retail. There are plans to legislate to introduce greater sanctions for non-compliance, which includes a civil penalty of up to £10,000 for serious breaches. In 2020, the Government introduced funding for HM Revenue and Customs and National Trading Standards to address the trade in illicit tobacco through Project CeCe and support regional co-operation.
We have a strong regulatory framework to deter the appeal of vaping to children by restricting product advertising, limits on nicotine strength, labelling and safety requirements, a duty to notify products to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and making it illegal to sell vapes and tobacco to those aged under 18 years old. The Department continues to work with enforcement agencies to ensure these regulations are enforced in England. The Government is currently considering recommendations on illicit tobacco and measures to deter children from vaping and further information will be available in due course.